Groundhog Day=Maternity Day!

What a day yesterday turned out to be! When I checked the animals in the morning, I noticed that one of our heifers was going in to labor. Heifers are female cattle that have not yet had a calf, and they tend to have the most problems, because birth, nursing and caring for their young are new to them. I kept an eye on the heifer all morning, but I also noticed that one of our ewes was getting ready to give birth too. She is a veteran mother so I wasn't too worried about her, BUT her udder was bigger than I have ever seen. By 1pm, the calf was born and the mother was licking it- so far so good. I left them alone and checked back in an hour. The calf should have been up on his feet, but he was not. Fortunately, the mother let me near it- it was unable to stand without help and it was starting to get chilled. We were about a quarter of a mile from the barn, but the calf needed a heat lamp and a confined space where we could get it nursing. What to do? I hoisted the calf onto the tailgate of our pickup truck and my father-in-law, who loves to help out on all aspects of the farm, drove very slowly to the barn while the mother followed her calf. We put the two of them in the stall with double heat lamps on the calf. By this time is was getting late in the afternoon. Time to check the ewe. I found her tucked in a protected spot. As I approached I saw one lamb and them another- twins! But when I got closer, I saw a third lamb that was curled up and chilled- TRIPLETS! I grabbed the chilled lamb and ran it down to my mother, who lives with us. She dried it and fed it a quick bottle of colostrum while Ellie and I worked with the calf. We rubbed him under the heat lamp, got him up and walking and headed him in the direction of his mother's teet. Then we grabbed the now warm lamb and headed up to the sheep. The mother accepted the third lamb and we walked them to a pen to be safe for the night. The snow started after dinner so we brought the ewe and her lambs to a stall for the night. This morning all of the babies were up and nursing! Life is tenuous and all of the babies may not survive, but so far so good. We'll keep a watchful eye over the mothers and their babies.

New season begins!

A healthy calf was born today! It's mother is a veteran cow and she is taking great care of her baby. You might see them when you drive by the farm on Charlestown Road.

First Calf

Lambing is over and now it is time for the calves to be born. This morning, as I walked up over the hill and scanned the pasture to find the cows, there, bathed in sunlight on a south facing slope and lying close to his mother, was our first calf of the season, a little bull! His mother, whom I call Tutu, because her eartag number is 227, is very protective-generally a good thing, but not when you want to take a photo of her new calf. I managed to get one close up picture, but it is not great. Tutu didn't like my getting too close, so she and her calf wandered away. It is amazing to see a newborn animal lope along next to its mother. I snapped a shot of them off in the distance too.

Another lamb born

The weather is warmer and calm today- a good day for lambing and a male lamb was just born. Bill found him with his mother when he drove the tractor into the pasture to frost seed. Bill is spreading clover seed which will work its way into the soil as it freezes and thaws with the warmer days and cold nights. The legumes will provide protein for the sheep to graze and nitrogen for the grasses already in the pasture.


The lambs are growing quickly and have formed a little group as you can see.

Lambing Time

It's lambing time at Broadwater Farm! Our Dorset ewes are proving to be very good mothers. So far we have 9 lambs, and there are more on the way. We'll post some more photos of the lambs soon.